Spiritual amputation

“If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Matthew 5:29
This topic is one that Jesus touches on several times (see this post on Matt. 18:8-9, also Mark 9:43). It sounds pretty extreme and shocking, and that’s why Jesus used it. It’s important to note that He is not talking about self-mutilation; otherwise the church throughout the ages would be characterised by people with missing eyes, hands, and feet. He uses this gruesome imagery as an illustration to show us how serious sin is.
Cutting off your own arm to save your life is not something that most of us would ever imagine doing. A few years ago, a mountain climber cut off his own arm to free himself when he became trapped. People who suffer from gangrene often have to make the decision to have their fingers or limbs amputated. If they don’t, the tissue rots and infects their bloodstream, and they die shortly afterwards.
Thinking about our own lives, is there anything gangrenous that we are hanging on to? If we refuse to cut it off, it will ultimately destroy us. This is what Jesus is talking about here. Just a little bit of sin, if allowed to remain, will eventually affect your whole life – and not just your life, but the lives of others around you, in your family and in the body of Christ. We have been called to live a holy life. That means getting rid of “the sin that so easily entangles, and... run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Heb. 12:1).